Together Again

Sabaidee. Welcome to our adventure.
After many months of planning, organising and separation our family is finally together in our new home of Vientiane in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. A massive sigh of relief from everyone involved. Merrilee having to cope in a new job in a new country for six months while I did my best to keep things going in Darwin with the boys finishing up at Moil Primary and also trying to get the house in shape ready to be rented out. With some new paving done under and around the house and a few new bits and pieces, it felt, as could be expected, a little sad to be leaving such a lovely looking home.
Our new home here thankfully  is just as wonderful in its own way. Situated a little way out of town, we have committed the ultimate real estate crime. Rather than choosing the worst house in the best street, instead, we have gone for a right corker that is at the very end of one of the worst roads in Vientiane. At the moment it is the tail end of the dry season, so the road in is very dusty and littered with potholes waiting to swallow any wary motorbikes that stray from the prescribed zig-zag route. Once the rains arrive it will not only be muddy and slippery, but the potholes that were at least visible......will no longer be. That will be an exciting ride I'm sure. Of course there is no guarantee that the road will in fact be enough above water to make it navigable in anything other that a dugout canoe. (Note to self, must buy one of those.................soon) 
There are not many falangs, (originally a word for the French....now just any foreigner),  in our neck of the woods, so we are still a bit of a novelty with the locals. Quizzical stares from strangers as we head with great purpose down dead end dirt tracks are generally turned into friendly smiles as we smile and greet those that we have come to recognise in our short time here already. 
It is a fairly quiet neighbourhood with our house being right at the edge of a series of rice fields where people are often seen gathering weed and fish during the day, and other things that I am not sure of by night. (Perhaps eels or fish or frogs or even some of those motorbikes that disappeared into the potholes must surely turn up somewhere!)
The sunrise from our small kitchen balcony where we usually eat breakfast is ridiculously insane. It is without a lie some kind of stereotypical Asian cartoon background. Rice paddie, with a single tree growing out of the middle of it, and a giant red ball, which is apparently the sun, glowing through the smokey haze. .....pretty much every day. Thankfully there is no bamboo in the above picture otherwise I would have trouble believing it myself.
The boys have settled into school life at VIS, (Vientiane International School), where Merrilee teaches. It is a wonderful school with great staff and beautiful students. I have been working as a substitute teacher almost from the moment I stepped off the plane. Pretty frightening straight up,  but great to have some work so early on. I have had so many classes already it is turning into a blur. Grade 12 French, History and Science, all the way down to Prep and Grade 1 PE it's been very interesting. Had a class of Grade 2's all day at one stage. Felt a bit like the Kindergarton Cop......minus the muscles.
Well, this being my first delve into the Blogging world, I apolgise if it is a little uninteresting for many of you. But with the months and maybe years to come I hope that my blogging skills will improve and there will be enough articles, photos, videos, recipes or pets for sale to keep you all interested and coming back to check on our Asian adventure.